A Burlington Grade 5 student has become the first child to receive the Writers' Union of Canada's Freedom to Read Award.

Evie Freedman, 10, is being honoured for her spirited defence last year of the controversial book, Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli Children Speak by Simcoe author Deborah Ellis.

The book was pulled out of circulation in some Ontario school libraries, including those in the Toronto and York public boards, after the Canadian Jewish Congress complained it was an inappropriate selection for the Ontario Library Association's Silver Birch reading awards program.

The Halton public board, where Evie attends Charles R. Beaudoin Public School , did not pull the book.

But children like her are among the most affected by book bans, said Ron Brown, chair of the writers' union.

Because of Evie, "we were able to get the message of freedom to read to students of that age," he said.

An ardent fan of Ellis' books, Evie was widely quoted in the press objecting to the censorship of Three Wishes.

Initiatives to censor expressions of “unacceptable” thoughts are an important feature of the work of Canadian advocates of Israeli state policies. This includes efforts to silence even children.

In 2006 the Canadian Jewish Congress is waging a campaign to prevent Ontario school school children from reading the words of Palestinian and Jewish Israeli children presented in the book Three Wishes: Palestinian and Israeli children speak, by award-winning Ontario author Deborah Ellis. The Toronto Star reported on this censorship campaign on March 2. Another article March 15 documents the spreading campaign, and a March 16 Toronto Star editorial compares this with other current censorship issues. The book had been recommended by the Ontario Library Association as one of those eligible for their prestigious Silver Birch Award, winners chosen by the votes of school children who read the eligible books.

Alison Weir reports in Counterpunch, March 18/19: ”In the midst of journalism’s ‘Sunshine Week’ — during which the Associated Press and other news organizations are valiantly proclaiming the public’s ‘right to know’ — AP insists on conducting its own activities in the dark, and refuses to answer even the simplest questions about its system of international news reporting.

Most of all, it refuses to explain why it erased footage of an Israeli soldier intentionally shooting a Palestinian boy...”

Rachel Corrie's words "Too hot for New York"

Mar 17, 2006 at 01:07 AM

March 2006: Rachel Corrie’s words — “Too Hot for New York”

The Nation reported March 16th on the storm of protest in response to a New York theater company’s decision to self-censor by postponing, indefinitely, its production of the play My Name is Rachel Corrie, composed from the journal entries and e-mails of the 23-year-old from Washington State who was crushed to death in Gaza three years ago under a bulldozer operated by the Israeli army.

Forty-six international human rights workers are now sailing to Gaza through international waters with one overriding goal: to break the Israeli siege that Israel has imposed on the civilian population of Gaza. Any action designed to harm civilians constitutes collective punishment (in the Palestinians’ case, for voting the “wrong” way) and is both illegal under international law and profoundly immoral. Our mission is to expose the illegality of Israel’s actions, and to break through the siege in order to express our solidarity with the suffering people of Gaza (and of the occupied Palestinian territory as a whole) and to create a free and regular channel between Gaza and the outside world.